Eliot Stannard, from the play by Eden Phillpotts, from the novel Widecombe Fair by Eden Phillpotts

[ t h e f a r m e r ' s w i f e : m o v i e r e v i e w ]

Classification: NR

Adapted from his own novel, Widecombe Fair, Eden Phillpott's play had been a long-running hit in the West End before Alfred Hitchcock translated it to the screen.

Essentially, it's a comedy of rural manners, as widower Jameson Thomas alights on the village's eligible spinsters before coming to appreciate the charms of his loyal housekeeper, Lilian Hall-Davis. But Hitchcock adds a veneer of social suspense that renders the farmer's search as much a study in gender and class as a melodramatic romance. Moreover, there's also plenty of coarse clowning from Gordon Harker, as Thomas's gauche handyman.